Help us build a new real tennis court in Sydney

Archived news and events

Melbourne v Sydney September 2014

Blimey – we won again!

MCC v Sydney May/June 2014

Playing our third fixture against MCC, we managed to pull off a draw of 12 matches all. The event was held over three days on three courts – Royal Melbourne (MCC 6-3), Ballarat (SRTC 6-3) , and Romsey (3-3). A subtle reminder no doubt to the Sydney Club that Victoria has three courts at its disposal, compared to nought for NSW. Rest assured, we’re working to fix that!

2014 World Championships

SRTC hosted a live streaming of the Real Tennis World Championships at the Unions, University and Schools Club on Tuesday 6th and Thursday 8th May 2014. Defending champion Rob Fahey pulled off a major upset by overcoming Cam Riviere by 7 sets to 3 to take his 12th title in a row and maintain his 20 year reign as world champion.

Hobart v Sydney March 2014

Hobart Real Tennis Club hosted Sydney in fine style again this year. As usual Sydney got off to a good start, taking the lead on day 1. The normal procedure on day 2 is for Sydney to crash and burn on day 2 and lose the tournament by a couple of matches. But not this year! As Club Secretary Chris Cooper commented: “As usual we were made to feel really
welcome, and there was a great deal of interest and support for our plans to build a court in Sydney. To cap it all off, we posted a win by 11 matches to 8 – the first such win in at least 5 years.”

Melbourne v Sydney September 2013

Sydney managed to post a win of 6 matches to 3 against RMTC – our third in a row…

August 2013: New Brochure now available

Hot off the press, our new brochure is available here for download – packed full of the latest info on our plans to build a new club in Sydney plus we reveal some fascinating insights into the history of the game and its origins in 19th century colonial Sydney.

Tour de Force

Dick Crane and Brian Robertson bravely set forth to conquer England on a real tennis tour par excellence in July 2012 – covering 11 courts in Southern England. Despite being out of practice, nothing could dampen our local heroes’ enthusiasm as they blitzed their way across the English countryside heroically haggling handicaps and winning the hearts and minds of their opponents. Read all about Dick and Brian’s silver trophy adventure here.

As they quite rightly point out – imagine how much more gold they would have plundered if Sydney had its own real tennis court. The SRTC committee hears you gentlemen – and we’re on the case!

Club Championships May 2013

The Club Championships held over the weekend of 13th-14th April 2013 were a huge success.

April 2013

We are continuing our discussions with Centennial Parklands to establish two new real tennis courts in a prime position in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Click here to download the latest update.

March 2013

Hobart v Sydney: Yet again we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! Despite leading 8 matches to 3 at the end of Saturday’s play, we managed to lose by just one match and went down to Hobart 10-9 at close of play on Sunday. One of our players had a bisque and match point but decided to let the opportunity go, only to lose his match. Of course what goes on tour stays on tour, so we can’t divulge who the culprit was, however he will forever be known simply as ‘Garibaldi. ‘Click here for more information and photos.

December 2012

Thanks to the generosity of Tanner Kibble Denton Architects, who had
previously worked on a plan for the refurbishment of the Toll House, we
now have artist impressions showing two courts set slightly behind and to the south of the Toll House. We also have detailed plans for the interior layout, all of which we will present to the Centennial Parklands Trust shortly.

Most importantly though, this enables us to complete detailed costings that
will give us a more accurate target for our fundraising.

In parts interstate, our “Barbarians” have done superbly. A team headed by
Hamish Oates recently won the newly reconstituted Sydney versus Ballarat
challenge (AKA the Doug Grant Trophy), and in September, under the
leadership of our captain, James Willis, Sydney pulled a great win out of
the hat against Melbourne and the following day defeated a Melbourne
Cricket Club team at Romsey. Let’s not ponder what they will do to our
handicaps next year… As usual Sydney was warmly and generously welcomed
and we very much look forward to reciprocating in Sydney in the not too
distant future.

We hope to see many of you at the SRTC Christmas drinks on Thursday 17th December from 6.00 PM at the Union, University and Schools Club, Bent Street, Sydney. Many of you must be wondering what is happening following our announcement of the potential court site next to the Moore Park Golf Club. Well, things are progressing – although perhaps not quite at the rate we had hoped. Click here for the full update…

October 2012

Here’s the latest information sheet on our proposal to build new tennis courts next to the Moore Park Toll House, located in Centennial Parklands: Sydney Real Tennis Flyer-2

September 2012

Melbourne v Sydney: SRTC managed a double victory in Victoria over the weekend of 22nd-23rd September 2012. On Saturday the team with no court managed to upset the favourites RMTC by 14 matches to 6. The overall score since the first match back in 1998 is RMTC 8, Sydney 5 – so Sydney still has some catching up to do.

MCC v Sydney: On Sunday SRTC played an inaugural match against the MCC at Romsey. The part-timers were again successful in pulling off a 6-3 win against the hard-hitting Melburnians. Lady luck was definitely on our side for this match, particularly after an excellent dinner at RMTC the night before.

Many thanks to both RMTC and MCC for making us feel so welcome. We will redouble our efforts to establish the new court we have all been waiting for here in Sydney, so we can host our Victorian friends here in Sydney.

Hobart March 2012: Here’s a fun video we made of our exploits in Hobart on the weekend of 10th and 11th March 2012. We may not have been victorious, but it was an excellent weekend and many thanks go to Barry Toates and all the Hobart members that made us feel so welcome.